


More Than Just Me

by Jen27ny



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Sense8 AU, connected
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 22:58:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5803612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen27ny/pseuds/Jen27ny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They both stared at each other, not sure what to make of all of this or how to explain this. How to explain that they could taste coffee and cake in their mouth, while smelling the wooden, clean air of the forest and hearing birds sing. How neither of them could say, if they were in a fancy room in the afternoon or in a beautiful forest in the evening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More Than Just Me

**Author's Note:**

> So this is me trying to get back to writing. It's kind of a Sense8 AU but instead of 8 people who are connected, it's only Jaime and Brienne. And they are not the same age. If you don't know what Sense8 is, it follows the lifes of 8 people whose minds are connected. 
> 
> Thanks a lot to my betas [josiepug](http://archiveofourown.org/users/josiepug/pseuds/josiepug) and [ikkiM](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ikkiM/pseuds/ikkiM) for helping me out!
> 
> Enjoy!

The first time it happened, Jaime was too confused to even realize what was happening. One second, he was back home at Casterly Rock, trying to make the best out of the Long Night break by sneaking away—and then he was at a beach. White, soft sand under his feet, beautiful sapphire-colored water in front of him. Slowly he looked up, seeing a cloudless sky and a bright sun above him. A seagull flew by.

But then he blinked and was back in the pretentious hall of his family estate.

******

Brienne was sure that it was some kind of daydream. It sometimes happened when she was strolling around Tarth, especially when she was younger. She would spend her days dreaming about knights and their adventures, pretending to be one. Taking a break from the city to visit her father might have triggered that old habit. Though that did not explain why she daydreamed about standing in a hallway with thick, red carpets, beautiful paintings, and golden statues. It clearly lacked the action of all her other daydreams. 

Just as suddenly as that hall appeared, it was gone again, and Brienne returned to enjoying the sand under her feet.

******

The second time it happened it was not so easy to ignore or put aside as a daydream.

She was on her way back to Evenfall Hall, walking through the woods. The sun had just set and though there wasn't anything more dangerous than a few shy deer in the area, her father still worried if she wasn't home before dark. Brienne was looking around and admiring the beauty of nature when a man suddenly appeared between the trees and put the beauty of nature to shame. He was unbelievable handsome, dressed in a dark suit and red shirt, his golden mane pulled back. As he caught her eyes, Brienne felt heat spread across her face and chest.

Having tea with his family was just as much of a torture as any other meal. The afternoon sun was shining through the enormous windows, as they sat on the old and slightly uncomfortable chairs, drinking coffee and eating tiny, unsatisfying cakes. Jaime's aunt Genna was telling some story about her husband, and then there she was, out of nowhere, walking around the room. She didn't fit in with everyone else, wearing a blue shirt and shorts, taller than anyone else, freckles covering her pale skin, and if it weren't for her big, blue, utterly beautiful eyes, he would have called her completely ugly.

They stared at each other, not sure what was happening, how to explain that they could taste coffee and cake in their mouths, while smelling the wooden, clean air of the forest and hearing birds sing, how neither of them could say if they were in a fancy room in the afternoon or in a beautiful forest in the evening.

But then Tyrion nudged Jaime in his side, and a bird flew close by the woman's head, and she was gone.

******

Somehow, Brienne was prepared to see him again, but not while she was sailing. Yet there he was, sitting next to her in the small boat, dodging the sail before it could knock him off the boat.

“You should be more careful with that thing,” he scolded. For a second, Brienne was too focused on his unnerving beauty—who could look so good in dress pants and a button down?—to form a proper comeback. She was never good at that.

Brienne wanted to ask his name. She wasn't sure how to start such a conversation. How do you ask someone’s name if they keep popping up out of nowhere?

“Maybe you just shouldn't show up like that,” Brienne said instead.

He snorted, and it sounded nothing like her indelicate sounds. “Well, sorry, but it doesn’t seem like I can really control it.” He then turned to inspect his surroundings. Brienne decided to focus on sailing, because her face was burning again. “Where are we anyway?”

“Tarth.”

“Tarth … as in the island Tarth? In the Narrow Sea?” 

She nodded and he blinked a few times. 

“I heard a lot about the water and stuff. It's said to be absolutely beautiful,” he continued.

“And is it? Beautiful, I mean,” she asked.

“It is,” he said, still not looking at her. For a short moment—Brienne should learn very soon, that he wasn't really capable of being silent longer than a few seconds—he was silent, before he spoke again. “You love it here.”

It wasn't a question, so Brienne didn't answer. She knew he felt it from her, just as she knew he wasn’t fond of the house where he was staying. He certainly did have a lot of memories and feelings around that place, but he didn't want to be there. Visiting her—or whatever it was they were doing—was a relief.

“Brienne,” she blurred out, as she was getting too nervous to handle the situation. 

He just silently raised one eyebrow. 

“It's … ehm … my name. Brienne. Brienne Tarth.”

“Like the island?”

Brienne nodded. “Centuries ago my family kind of ruled it. We still live in the old house, but that's basically it.” He looked at her too intensely for her liking, and she blushed badly. Fiddling with the oar, she kept her gaze at the horizon. “And you are?”

“Jaime Lannister.”

For a moment, she thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. She could feel that he was telling her the truth.

“Lannister?” she asked, and suddenly they were sitting in a library. The room was beautiful, filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of books. Through large windows, Brienne could see a beautiful garden, and a glimpse of the Sunset Sea. Underneath their feet was a dark red carpet with a golden lion embroidered in it.

Slowly, she looked at him, at his perfect face, the piercing green eyes, his white teeth exposed by his smirk, the golden hair and the expensive clothes. She had seen enough pictures of him and his family to know that he was the actual Jaime Lannister. A part of her didn't know how she could have missed that, another part was sure that this whole thing was major trouble.

_Murderer._ The thought flitted her mind.

The emotion in his eyes changed, though she didn't need to look at him to know he didn't like her reaction. He could feel her emotions, just as she felt his. As she finally did look at him, there was a dangerous look in his eyes, an explosive combination of anger and recklessness.

“I-I just meant t-that—” Brienne stuttered.

“Save it,” Jaime interrupted and looked out of the window. “It's not like I’ve never heard that reaction.” _But he could never feel it._

Then, just as quick as it had started, she was back on the water, alone. 

Strangely, she missed him.

******

The only place in all of Casterly Rock that he actually liked was the stables. Even his old bedroom just reminded him of how his father used to keep him there for hours until he could read and write properly.

When Jaime was younger, he spent a lot of time riding the horses. At first together with Cersei, before she complained that the animals stank, then alone, until riding horses all of his friends started to play soccer. He liked it—like almost any sport—but he missed the horses, their calmness and their power. He missed how free he felt when he was riding,, just the nature and the wind in his face.

He thought about yesterday. He remembered sitting in the library, then being on the other side of the continent on a boat, and then back at the library; the girl with the big blue eyes; her disgust as she found out who he was.

“Stupid wench,” he muttered, as he petted the horse's head. _Why should I care about her opinion? I never care about the opinions of others._

“My name is Brienne.”

He didn't turn around at once. Instead, Jaime took his time to pet the horse one more time, before he moved to smile at the girl. She stood there, trying to make herself smaller, even though she was taller than him, a bright blush all over her face and neck, but her blue eyes shone. He looked away quickly, because he wasn't sure if she could read his thoughts.

“What do you want?” Jaime asked.

“Nothing,” she answered, and looked around. Her hand twitched, as if she wanted to touch the horse next to her, but she didn't move.

“Then why are you here?”

“I don't know. I control it as well as you.”

“Which means not at all.” He smirked at her, and she blushed even more. Her eyes darted around the stable, and once again landed on the animals. Jaime could feel her excitement about them again, and almost told her to go ahead and pet them. Then again, he wasn't sure if she could actually touch them. “Are there no horses on your island?”

“Not really. There used to be some, but it's a small island. It's too small for them, I guess. But—” She stopped and bit her lip. She must do that a lot; it was already chapped.

His eyes lingered on them for a bit too long. “But?” Jaime asked after clearing his throat.

“My father taught me how to ride a horse. Just like he taught me how to sail a boat, and how to swim and fish.” A warm, cozy feeling swept over his body, that no doubt came from Brienne. She must love her father a lot.

An uneasy silence spread between them, and Jaime didn't need this strange connection to know that she felt awkward and out-of-place. But he didn't really want to do anything. Why should he? She thought that he was a criminal who deserved to be in prison. Just like everybody else did. He didn't even know why it bothered him so much. She was just some stupid girl from an island far away.

Brienne suddenly looked up and at him, but he ignored her and continued to groom the horse. “I'm sorry—”

“Don't say it. I know you're not sorry, so save it.” Jaime glared at her, but to his surprise, she just glared back. Somehow he had thought that she would back away.

“What I wanted to say was, that I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. But it's not like you don't deserve it.”

“Oh, do I?”

“You killed someone.”

Jaime couldn't help but laugh right now. “Oh, you naïve wench. You still see the world in black and white, don't you?”

Brienne opened her mouth to say something, but stopped perhaps because she felt his emotions. Yes, he did shoot that damned Aerys Targaryen. He would it do a thousand times over, if it meant he could save a whole city.

Jaime saw her blinking, and he wondered once again how much of his thoughts she could hear. For a second, they just looked into each other eyes, and then she was gone again.

******

It had been two days since Brienne had her last encounter with Jaime. She wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried about it. As a child with too much imagination for her own good, she had firmly believed all the old stories about magic. When she hit puberty and people seemed to get crueler and crueler everyday, she stopped believing.

She tried to research what happened to her, but she couldn't really come up with good keywords that didn't sound like she was on drugs or looking for a teenage fantasy-novel. It crossed her mind to talk to her father about it, but she couldn't catch him without his newest girlfriend, so she let it go.

_Maybe it just stopped_ , Brienne thought, while sitting in her favorite chair with her favorite book and a cup of tea. _After all, it started all of a sudden. It could stop just as quickly._

Just as she put down her cup to continue reading, she felt a strong, sudden mix of excitement and nervousness. A harsh wind blew the hair out of her face, and she stood at the edge of a high cliff. Waves crashed against the stone, and they seemed so much more fierce than the waters of Tarth.

“You're here again?”

“Don't tell me you're going to jump!” Shocked, Brienne turned to look at Jaime, who stood right next to her wearing only red swimming trunks. Her face burned as she tried not to stare at his perfect body—though it was pretty hard not to—but she swore she could see a small, satisfied smirk on his face.

A bigger wave crashed against the cliff, and it brought her back to reality. Or whatever _this_ was. She looked at him again feeling panicked, but before she could speak, he interrupted her with a simple wave of his hand. “Relax, wench. I'm not going to kill myself.”

“You want to jump off the cliff!”

“Yeah, but it won't kill me. I used to do it all the time as a kid, before my sister tattled on me to my father.”

Brienne nodded, like she would understand it, and looked down the cliff again. It was pretty high.

“Scared?”

“This is insane.”

“It's fun. Trust me.”

She scolded, because she knew he was partly lying. It may be fun, but he was scared as well. Then she understood. He didn't want to be alone. That's why she was here. Slowly, she looked at Jaime again, who just looked down at the water. There was an urge to comfort him, but she couldn't get a single word out of her mouth. She hoped he could feel it. He looked up and smirked at her.

“Glad you volunteer. On three.”

“What?”

“Three!”

Before she could grasp what he was about to do, she felt a hand at the small of her back and then she was falling down the cliff. She screamed more loudly than she ever had before, but it was comforting to hear a deeper scream right next to her.

They hit the water. For a second, they were completely disoriented, but as their heads broke through the surface, adrenaline pumping through their veins, they just laughed.

******  
Slowly, they started to figure out how it worked. Whenever they thought about the other one or had similar feelings, they would visit each other. Sometimes it still happened at random times. Sometimes it happened when they needed help.

They learned they could not only touch each other, but they could also use each other’s abilities. The first time it happened, Brienne had met some of her old classmates from primary school. They were still cruel to her and she was never witty enough to counter their cruel jokes. So, not only they, but also Brienne, were surprised, when she suddenly did respond, and in such a smooth and witty manner that it screamed Jaime Lannister. He just stood beside her, smirking and looking very smug.

Jaime used her abilities to show off. He invited Tyrion to go sailing with him, even though neither of them ever learned how. Tyrion seemed shocked when he saw Jaime skillfully handling the boat as if he done it for all of his life. Brienne disapproved, but helped him so they wouldn't drown.

Very quickly, they became used to each other and began to spend a lot of time together. The Lannisters could often see their _golden boy_ at their private basketball court—a present Jaime got from his Uncle Kevan when he became captain of his high school basketball team—apparently playing by himself because they couldn't see Brienne. Selwyn Tarth saw his daughter taking long walks on the beach, laughing about nothing, because he couldn't hear Jaime's jokes. From time to time, Jaime went for a ride with one of the horses. Brienne would sit behind him and when they were far enough from the mansion, Jaime would get off the horse and let her ride by herself. They didn’t understand how or why this was happening, but they decided not to question it.

Spending so much time together and feeling the other’s emotion, they learned a lot about each other. It wasn't as if they knew every detail about each other’s pasts, but one night, when it was well after midnight on Tarth and shortly before midnight at Casterly Rock, they sat together and talked for hours.

“I know you want to ask,” Jaime said into the comfortable silence. Getting to know each other also meant that the silence between them wasn’t so awkward anymore.

Brienne didn’t need to ask him to clarify. And while her manners wanted to decline—she could still feel his complicated feelings about the topic—her curiousness was stronger. “Only if you want tell me.”

For a moment, he was silent, considering if he should tell her what he hadn’t told anyone else. Not the police, not his friend, and not his family. No one. Maybe that was why he wanted to tell her so badly. Maybe it was the reassurance that she would understand him, because she would feel it.

“I don’t know why nobody took him seriously,” he started. “Everyone called him crazy, everyone _knew_ he was crazy, but I guess they were either too scared of him or thought he was the harmless type of crazy. Y’know, the kind that just talks a lot of bullshit. But he wasn’t. When I started to work for him, he told me about all his enemies and that he wanted to see them burn. At first, I put it all aside as some sort of metaphor for a plan to ruin their businesses. But then he showed me the gun inside the drawer of his desk, and told me about the explosives he bought. I never thought he would actually use it until he showed me the installation plans one night.”

He paused, and such a strong wave of emotions hit Brienne that she gasped. Worry, fear, helplessness and then determination. “In the end, I didn’t think a lot about it. I took the gun and shot him.”

Jaime didn’t look at her while Brienne thought about what to say. What are you suppose to say? He _did_ kill someone, but he saved a whole city.

Then she remembered that she didn’t have to say anything. It was one of the perks of their connection. Her feelings did all the talking, so she hesitantly put her hand on his. For a moment, Jaime just stared at their hands before his eyes traveled to her face. She offered half a smile and he returned it.

It didn’t feel like it was enough. “When I was about fifteen,” she began, but couldn’t look him in the eyes, “some of my classmates made a bet. About me. About … who could woo me, I guess, and take my virginity.” Jaime couldn’t even tease Brienne for her blush—which he loved to do—because he saw red. He felt her embarrassment, the sadness, felt like he had been the one who cried all those nights instead of teenage Brienne. He wanted to punch them all. He wanted to use all of his Lannister power to make their lives the Seven Hells. Jaime was so focused planning their downfall that he didn’t noticed Brienne blushed even more because she felt his wish to avenge her.

She cleared her throat. “In the end, I found out about it, broke a few noses and a collarbone, and got a week of detention while they were suspended for a month.”

Unlike Brienne, Jaime knew what he could say. Hells, he had a lot to say. But in this moment, it didn’t felt right. Instead, he intertwined their fingers and squeezed her hand slightly. This time, she couldn’t meet his eyes and her face was probably redder than ever before. He couldn’t help but laugh. 

At some point, Brienne fell asleep. Jaime stayed up for a while and just watched her. He couldn't deny that he had become attached to his wench and he felt quite happy just sitting there and watching her sleep. He couldn’t tell her that, but wondered if she felt it. Jaime knew that she did feel something for him, even though neither him nor her knew exactly what it was. She was very suspicious of men who were nice to her, which was kind of understandable. But she did blush every time she looked at him, even more often than she did at the beginning.

******

For Brienne, getting back to King's Landing was a nightmare. The goodbye from her father had been heartbreaking, the ferry ride really rough, and the several hour train ride so packed with people that she had to stand for half of the time. An old woman had glared at her the whole time like she was mad that Brienne was so tall and took up so much space. Back at her small apartment, there was a huge pile of mail, mostly bills. She didn't have the energy to do anything other than fall face first into her bed and sleep.

Her first day back at work had been horrifying. Her boss was angry; there was a mountain of work on her desk. In the end, she stayed two hours longer than she was supposed to, and also drank way more coffee than she should.

During all of that, she hadn't seen Jaime at all, not even a feeling. It felt kind of strange because they spent so much time together these last few days. He did say that he had to go _back_ , too, but he hadn't mentioned where exactly _back_ was. Now that she thought about it, she also hadn't mentioned where she was going either.

Brienne sighed and took another sip of her coffee while walking down the busy street towards home. Maybe she should try to connect to him tonight. They could just talk, exchange some stories … Like always, he would find a way or another to make her laugh and forget. At least for a while.

It was the stillness that caught her attention. Someone just a couple of feet in front of her had just stopped, a man, Jaime. At first she thought that they had connected. After all, she did think about him. The people on the sidewalk actually noticed him. They moved to go around him, several people did a double-take. It felt different. Brienne couldn’t describe the feeling she had when they visited each other. This was different.

But if it wasn’t their connection, then …

They walked towards each other.

“Brienne?” Jaime asked somewhat carefully. “Are you … here?” She couldn’t react, all she could do was just stare at him. “Here, in King’s Landing?”

Slowly, and after a painfully long time, she nodded. Equally slowly, Jaime stepped closer to her, one foot in front of the other, until he was right in front of her. He eyed her like he had seen a ghost. She hadn’t even thought about ever meeting him, really meeting him. Somehow Brienne had seen her entire relationship with Jaime Lannister as something that was in her head. Nobody would believe her anyway.

Slowly, Jaime lifted a hand, but stopped right next to her face. With a raised eyebrow, he asked her silently for permission. Brienne felt dizzy and her heart raced. How could he look so calm? Did he not feel nervous? After fighting her every instinct to just run away and taking a deep breath, she nodded.

His hand on her cheek was warm and firm. Just like he had always felt when he had touched her before. And yet, this was also totally different. Her heart was almost jumping out of her chest.

“You’re here,” he whispered. “You are really here.”

Brienne wanted to say something, but she didn’t get a chance. His lips were on hers before she could even find the right words.


End file.
